CFPB Fights Deplatforming & Censorship With New Rule To Block Rights Violating Financial Contract Clauses

Liz Morton
Liz Morton


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On the eve of Inauguration Day, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has proposed a new rule aimed at stopping financial companies from forcing Americans to choose between participating in the financial system or giving up essential rights guaranteed by the Constitution.

CFPB Proposes Rule to Ban Contract Clauses that Strip Away Fundamental Freedoms | Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
Today, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) proposed a rule that would stop financial companies from forcing Americans to choose between participating in the financial system or giving up their rights, including those guaranteed by the Constitution.

The proposed rule seeks to stop companies from using a variety of contract clauses that limit fundamental freedoms, including waivers of substantive legal rights and fine print that suppresses speech.

“To access the American financial system, people should not be forced into forfeiting rights enshrined in law or our Constitution,” said CFPB Director Rohit Chopra. “Companies should not weaponize fine print to deplatform or purge people from the financial system.”

For decades, companies have slowly eroded Americans’ rights by slipping clauses into take-it-or-leave-it contracts that seek an unfair leg up by attempting to deny individuals the benefits of a free market.

Over time, fine print governing Americans’ lives has grown to impose increasingly intrusive and unusual burdens on Americans, impinging on fundamental freedoms.

Specifically, the CFPB is proposing to block companies from:

  • Undermining Rule of Law: The Constitution vests legislative power in Congress and reserves important authorities for the States. The CFPB is protecting that legal structure by ensuring that large companies cannot use form contracts to opt out of statutes passed by Congress or state legislatures, including protections for servicemembers, laws prohibiting elder fraud, and accountability for corporate lawbreaking.
  • Deplatforming and Suppressing Speech: The rule would bar companies from fining, suing, or deplatforming based on consumer comments, reviews, or political or religious views. It protects consumers' right to exercise free speech, including a consumer’s right to share negative reviews about a financial firm’s products or services, as well as political speech with which the company’s management disagrees.
  • Amending Key Terms by Fiat: By stopping companies from unilaterally updating contracts in their favor, the rule seeks to protect consumers’ right to benefit from the contracts they agree to and gives people the ability to make decisions about their options in the marketplace.
  • Forcing Customers to Automatically Plead Guilty: The CFPB is proposing to codify existing prohibitions against taking a consumer’s property without judicial due process or oversight. These longstanding prohibitions include prohibitions against “confessions of judgment,” which force consumers to essentially plead guilty even if they have defenses.

Unsurprisingly, the full rule references PayPal's 2022 attempts to amend their Acceptable Use Policy "to prevent consumers from engaging in political or religious expression or to penalize them for doing so" as just the kind of rights infringement they are seeking to curtail.

Second, some companies have also used contractual terms to prevent consumers from engaging in political or religious expression or to penalize them for doing so. For example, in 2022 PayPal amended its user agreement to levy a fine or close accounts based on consumers’ exercise of free expression, even if it was unrelated to fraud or other illegal activity.

In a similar vein, some consumer financial companies have been accused of “de-banking” persons or organizations based on their political or religious beliefs.

For example, several State regulators recently accused a major bank of "discriminating against religious ministries,” including the bank’s closure of the accounts of a Christian ministry because the bank did not want to serve the organization’s “business type.”

After significant publish backlash and threats of legal and regulatory consequences, PayPal eventually removed the section of their terms that would have allowed them to fine users $2,500 per violation for sending, posting or publication of content the company deemed to be "harmful" or "misinformation".

PayPal Policy Update Finally Removes $2500 Misinformation Fine
PayPal updates UA policy - $2500 damages only apply to fraud, counterfeits or IP infringement, not misinformation.

The CFPB will be accepting public comments on this proposed rule through April 1, 2025.

Download the full proposed rule:

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Liz Morton is a 17 year ecommerce pro turned indie investigative journalist providing ad-free deep dives on eBay, Amazon, Etsy & more, championing sellers & advocating for corporate accountability.

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retired4fun2013
Thanks for posting this.

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Avatar PlaceholderConcerned21 hours ago
It is Slowwwwwww and is more expensive to the buyer. In the past items I have ordered will sit at the hub for around 2 weeks. I avoid ebay unless I cannot get it elsewhere.
Avatar Placeholdermarks3047Yesterday
Hi, I have a friend who had an interesting experience recently that fell under this issue. They sold an item, packed and dispatched to the UK Ebay hub, this was midway through the period as the pause occurred. They then received a message from the buyer that they had checked tracking and discovered that the item had disappeared on ebay, no advice. It then turned out that the tracking had been fudged and the package was with them but not forwarded on to the USA. A few hours of to and fro to get the answer that it was due to the tariff dilemma. NO fault of the buyer(who had paid) or the seller ((who had been paid) and a strange response that the item could not be delivered. The buyer would be refunded in full, the seller would keep payment and the item would not be returned. Strange, Ebay must be hurting paying our both sides of the deal+
Avatar Placeholdercwi2 days ago
  1. Start building out the brand and promoting the heck out of Canadian sellers to our domestic market. Work with Federal/Provincial level governments in the push to build a strong presence here in Canada.

  2. Add other calculated shipping options than Canada Post UPS/FedEx for domestic shipping - partner with couriers nationwide, leverage agreements and software integrations with courier reseller platforms such as Stallion Express. Build out a crowd sourced network using national/regional retail locations as drop points for rural regions, leveraging transport networks to move packages to courier pickup points, akin to the UK courier model but adapted to the Canadian realities.

  3. Create a centralized international shipping clearing house to aide micro businesses with affordable shipping rates and customs clearance to avoid pitfalls and complexities (akin to US eIS).

  4. Bring features forward to the platform from other localizations, such as prepaid best offer acceptance, etc.